ther countries (see the
writings of Bernstein, Jaures, and others), but they do not abandon
them. Apparently it is their policy rather to create strife and
confusion than to alleviate existing misery. That attitude must have
covered English Socialists with ignominy in the eyes of foreign
Socialists. The very humiliating treatment which the English
Socialists received at the International Socialist Congress in
Stuttgart of 1907 from their Continental comrades suggests that the
curious attitude and the not very estimable tactics of British
Socialists have not found the approval of their Continental
colleagues.

The doctrines of the English Socialists with regard to property are
identical with those of most Anarchists (see Eltzbacher, "Der
Anarchismus"). For instance, Proudhon taught: "We rob (1) by murder on
the highway; (2) alone, or in a band; (3) by breaking into buildings,
or scaling walls; (4) by abstraction; (5) by fraudulent bankruptcy;
(6) by forgery of the handwriting of public officials, or private
individuals; (7) by manufacture of counterfeit money; (8) by cheating;
(9) by swindling; (10) by abuse of trust; (11) by games and lotteries;
(12) by usury; (13) by farm rent, house rent, and leases of all kinds;
(14) by commerce, when the profit of the merchant exceeds his
legitimate salary; (15) by making profit on our product, by accepting
sinecures, and by exacting exorbitant wages."[273] "What is property?
It is robbery."[274] "Property, after having robbed the labourer by
usury, murders him slowly by starvation."[275] Practically the
identical doctrines are propounded by British Socialists. Further
instances of the resemblance between Socialism and Anarchism will be
found in Chapter XXX, "Socialism and Anarchism."

Society is at present based upon individualism. In their anxiety to
prove the failure of modern civilisation British Socialists deny that
the world has progressed under individualism. "Not by individual
selfishness, or national selfishness, has the progress of the human
race been advanced."[276] And they boldly declare that all history,
having been written by men of the dominant class, is a deception. "Are
we then to understand that the whole of history, so far, has been
written from the point of view of the dominant class of every age?
Most assuredly so; and this applies to well-nigh the whole of the
sources of past history."[277]

The foregoing should suffice to make it clear that the Socialist